


Akhet Falls

by MiyabiDreams



Series: Elysia [3]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-18
Updated: 2015-04-18
Packaged: 2018-03-23 14:06:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3771073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiyabiDreams/pseuds/MiyabiDreams
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The encounter with Ashley Williams on Horizon has a bigger impact on  Shepard than she initially lets on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Akhet Falls

_"They took Egan and Sam and...and Lilith! Don't let 'em get away!"_

_"I'm sorry, I did everything I could!"_

Fists collide with the smooth steel wall of the cargo bay, a furious growl ripping through the humming quiet accompanied by a reverberating clang.

_"I thought you were dead, Commander... We all did."_

"Dammit!" Cradling a sprained wrist, she waits for her nifty new upgrades to heal the damage she's done to herself.

_"Ash, it's been so long. How've you been? Are you ok?"_

_"That's it? That's all you have to say to me? You show up out of nowhere, after **two years** , and act like nothing's happened?"_

_"Ash-"_

_"I would have followed you anywhere, Commander! I- You were...so much more than just our commander."_

She hates the salt sting of tears in her eyes. She'd thought she was no longer capable of crying after so long, after the modifications. She swipes at her face furiously, turning on a heavy canister sitting against a wall, filled with some of the spare mineral that she's taken to storing down here, and lifts it to throw across the bay in a flash of biotics.

_"Why didn't you even try to contact me?"_

_"I was out for two years, Ash. You moved on with your life, with your career. I couldn't just shove my way back in and reopen old wounds..."_

_"And yet, here you are, pulling me back in. And now we're getting reports that you're with Cerberus."_

"I'm not! I'm not Cerberus, I'm not!" She's shouting at nothing, almost hysterical. The look on Ashley's face, like she's been betrayed by her idol, was heartbreaking and really, the last logical part of her mind says, it was a wonder that this breakdown hadn't started sooner.

_"I wanted to believe that you were alive, but I never expected anything like this! You turned your back on everything we stood for. You remember what Cerberus was doing, the experiments they were running! You said it yourself, they needed to be stopped, and now..."_

_Garrus interjects. "Dammit Williams, you're so focused on Cerberus that you're ignoring the real threat."_

_"You're letting their history get in the way of the facts," Shepard adds, only just keeping her voice level._

_"Or maybe you think you owe Cerberus for bringing you back."_

"NO!"

The clanging of heavy crates finally draws attention, from EDI, from the bottom deck crew members, and there's a small crowd gathering at the window looking down over the cargo bay. They've never seen Shepard lose her previously unflappable cool like this.

_"It doesn't matter. I know where my loyalties lie. I'm still an Alliance soldier. It's in my blood. I'm reporting back to the Citadel. I'll let **them** decide if they believe your story."_

_"Ash, please..."_

_"So long, Commander. And good luck."_

By the time someone decides to brave going in to make sure she hasn't burnt herself out or done herself or the ship some serious harm, she's gone quiet, sitting on the floor with her head down, her arms tucked in close against her middle. A large, three-fingered hand comes to very gingerly rest on the side of her head. This is the first time that Garrus can recall ever having seen the Commander without that peculiar scarf thing on the ship. Her hair is very short, and he imagines that if he touched it with his bare hand, that it would be quite soft.

"She hates me, Garrus," Shepard whines, giving a pitiful sniff. Her voice has been ratcheted up a couple octaves in her anguish.

"I'm sure that's not true," he assures her, though really, he doubts that.

"She was my best gods-damned friend, and now she can't even look at me without calling me a traitor..."

"She doesn't know as much as she thinks she does. She'll learn, and then she'll apologize." For all Ashley had been caustic and more than a little xenophobic, she had been a good friend to the Commander, seeing her through Alenko's death and taking her all the way to the destruction of the original Normandy. He'd never had someone that close to him...except for the Commander herself.

He's not exactly prepared for it when one small hand grips the ridge of his armor's collar, as if trying to use him as driftwood to stay afloat in a stormy sea. Rather than point it out though, he just lays a hand on her wrist, pries her fingers loose, and starts to stand. She comes along with him with a little urging.

"Who gave you leave to be the gentleman?" she mutters, holding onto his arm until she could bring herself to straighten up, wiping her hands across her face, which by now has started to smooth out, free from any trace of Cerberus' tampering. There aren't even those distinguished little scars he'd noticed when they'd first started talking in those first few weeks. She'd once confided in him that the scar on her chin was from an accident when she was just a child on Mindoir, when she'd tried to climb a rock face and had slipped, while the one above her right eye had been one of many that had come from the Thresher that had attacked on Akuze. He muses briefly that she looks a good deal younger without them.

She's managed to not only stem her tears, but return to her generally very professional demeanor, in the space of those few moments of quiet. She glances up toward the window. The crowd has dispersed.

"Come on Shepard, you know me, I'm always the picture of propriety," Garrus replies easily, feeling a lot less awkward now that the most indestructible human he knows isn't a tear-stained mess on the floor. "Let's go hit the Citadel. We'll go to the Dark Star and get hammered before we have to deal with Illium, how about that?"

"I can't tell if this is insubordination or fraternization," she says thoughtfully, looking up at Garrus with arched brows and a quirking of lips that tells him that she's amused with him. He enjoys watching her face for those subtle little expressions; human faces were always obvious, even trained soldiers had their tells, and Shepard was no different.

"We'll call it a requisitions run. Gardner still needs provisions and didn't you want to find food for your fish?"

"Find us a designated driver."

"Done."


End file.
